Wood anatomy: an African perspective, January 2019, at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa

This symposium “Wood anatomy: an African perspective” will be held on 7–10 January 2019 in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the annual Conference of the South African Association of Botanists (SAAB). The program will include varied topics related to wood and bark anatomy, including structural diversity, formation, functions, evolution and identification of these tissues with the focus on the exploration of African woody plants. The symposium will be associated with IAWA. For more details please contact Alexei Oskolski (aoskolski@uj.ac.za).

Alexei Oskolski, South Africa

Abstract Submission Deadline For TRACE 2019 (Italy) Meeting Is Extended to February 15th

The meeting TRACE (Tree rings in Archaeology, Climatology and Ecology), to be held May 7-10, 2019 in San Leucio Caserta, aims to build bridges and facilitate knowledge exchange in all contemporary fields of tree-ring science. It will include 7 sessions on forest growth, dendroclimatology, human history, ecology and ecophysiology, dendrochronology in the tropics and tree-ring networks.

The session "wood anatomy meets Dendro Sciences" is organized in cooperation with IAWA. The session aims to explore the role of anatomical studies in gathering environmental information that is translated into functional wood traits during plant growth and then remains stored in wood. A renewed upscaling approach from microscopy to plant functioning, in synergy with other disciplines (e.g. dendroecology, eco-physiology and ecological modelling), allows entering inside-wood adding a multi-level and multi-temporal perspective in the analysis of wood traits. Such an approach can be extended from the past (e.g. tracing evolutionary trends starting from fossil woods), through the assessment of the present adaptive capability (e.g. analyzing drivers guiding models of wood formation), until predicting future trends in functional anatomy under a climate change scenario.

The 2019 WWD Symposium and the 2nd IUFRO Forest Products Culture Research Group Colloquium which will be held from Thursday 21st to Saturday 23rd of March 2019 in the Austrian Open Air Museum Stuebing is following the above general theme. You are asked to send abstracts for oral presentations as well as for poster presentations within the five topics listed below. The symposium is supported by IUFRO, IAWA and IAWS.

This session aims at promoting a lively discussion on the issue of forest vulnerability caused by climate changes, with an integrated multi-scale, multi-temporal and interdisciplinary approaches. A detailed description of the session can be found at https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2019/session/32154

The IAWA-IUFRO International Symposium: Challenges and Opportunities for Updating Wood Identification will be held on May 20-22, 2019 in Beijing, China. The symposium will be co-organized by the Research Institute of Wood Industry, Chinese Academy of Forestry and the Forest Products Laboratory, Forest Service, USA.

The topics of this symposium are: Scientific understanding to wood identification; Recent advances in various wood identification methods; Integrated application of wood identification techniques; Timber tracking & databases establishment; and forestry affirmation & forest products verification. The main objectives of the symposium are to provide an international forum for experts to exchange the latest related research advances and experiences, as well as to further discuss current focus problems, challenges and opportunities for newly developed wood identification technology.

IUFRO 2019 Congress will be held at Curitiba of Brazil from September 29 to October 5, 2019. The Congress is calling for abstracts of sessions. End of call for abstracts will be December 31, 2018.
The Congress registration and abstract submission is now available here: http://iufro2019.com/abstracts-submission/.

The forthcoming EuroDendro 2019 Conference organized by Mendel University, will take place in 9-13 September 2019 in Brno, Czech Republic.

Plant anatomy symposium in Moscow, Russia, September 16–21, 2019

A symposium on plant anatomy is going to be held in Moscow, Russia, September 16–21, 2019, dedicated to Prof. Lotova's 90th anniversary: http://msu-botany.ru/conf-lotova2019/. As Prof. Lotova was bark anatomist, the attendance of bark and wood expert is especially welcome.

4th Xylem International Meeting, 25-27 September 2019, Padua, Italy

The 4th Xylem International Meeting is going to be held in the Botanical Garden of the University of Padua, from September 25 to September 27, 2019. XIM4 is a meeting of discussion on the recent advances in the field of plant hydraulics. The soil-plant-atmosphere continuum is composed by different structural, anatomical and biochemical characteristics (e.g., different cell types and proportions, cell and pit sizes, biomolecular regulation of different processes affecting water transport, etc.). The aim of XIM4 is to advance the knowledge on the integration of these structures in contributing to the overall efficiency of the water transport system, but also in determining susceptibility to hydraulic dysfunctions caused by the environmental variability. For more information, please check the website http://intra.tesaf.unipd.it/CMS/xim/default.asp.